Woodley: I don’t have to beat GSP to be G.O.A.T.

Georges St-Pierre is the greatest welterweight of all time. Current champ Tyron Woodley once believed that to be Jesse James he had to kill Jesse James. However, after crushing Darren Till at UFC 228, at the post-fight press conference Woodley argued that mixed martial arts has evolved, and he can become the G.O.A.T. independent of a fight with GSP.

“At one point, I thought I needed to beat him to be the greatest,” said Woodley, as transcribed by Marc Raimondi for MMA Fighting. “I mean, who’s gonna say he’s not the greatest welterweight of all time. He beat the best welterweights in the world. It’s not like he was running through guys that were horrible, he was beating stud after stud after stud. He really separated himself from everybody else. I watched him do that for so long and I always envisioned fighting him, I always envisioned beating him.”

“I told myself that I had to beat him to be the greatest, but I don’t. This sport is different. These guys are better. They’re more well-rounded, they punch harder, they’re faster. And they’ve been training at a younger age. It’s not the wrestler that just learned how to punch. Everybody can do everything now, so I think the fact that I’ve been able to beat the last specialists in the game, beat the up-and-coming rising star, beat Robbie Lawler, who’s one of the most vicious fighters we’ve ever seen with two title fights that I think are probably in the top 10 of title fights of all time.”

“It don’t take much more for me to solidify that spot. But if he wants to fight me, of course I’m gonna fight Georges St-Pierre. I just don’t think he has to, I don’t think he has any interest in it and I’m kind of over it at this point.”

“It’s always appealed to me, but I’m not gonna keep calling out a guy that’s already had nine title defenses, ran over the division. He stepped away from the sport, he came back, he made it very obvious that he wanted to fight certain types of fights and it didn’t look like he wanted to fight me.”

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